#disclaimer billie i LOVE your music and this is just a silly little post PLEASE don't sue me

[bittxrsweetsoph]

Y'all I have a theory!

You know 007's OST - No time to die by Billie Eilish?

WHAT IF it was inspired by Goncharov? Okay I know it sounds crazy BUT HEAR ME OUT

*obvs this post contains spoilers from Goncharov (1973)*

Let's analyze the lyrics:

I should've known

I'd leave alone

Just goes to show

That the blood you bleed

Is just the blood you owe

At the very end of his life, Goncharov, on the floor and with his clothes soaked wet with his own blood, looks back. It's been a hell of a ride! He's won, he's failed, he got some friends on the road, and many enemies too. He realizes that, even though he's never been alone (Andrey, Katya, his cat, etc), the mobster's life is a lonely one. You can never be sure you're trusting the right person. And so there he is, dying alone, and his blood doesn't even impress him. He's already seen so much blood. He has killed, we know that much. Was it fair? Did those people deserve to die? Goncharov owes a debt, those people's families want him dead. Now he is.

It is implied in "faces from my past return, another lesson yet to learn" too, the faces of those he murdered. Every single one of their faces was carved into his memory; now he remembers. Now he gets to learn what they felt.

We were a pair

But I saw you there

Too much to bear

You were my life

But life is far away from fair

Was I stupid to love you?

Was I reckless to help?

Was it obvious to everybody else

That I'd fallen for a lie?

You were never on my side

Fool me once, fool me twice

This screams betrayal. Someone Goncharov loves betrays him. Is the song referring to Andrey or Katya? We don't know, but it kinda fits both of them. "Fool me once, fool me twice". Guess what! There were two big betrayals.

Katya's treason takes place on the final act, but there are some hints scattered throughout the entire movie. She loves her husband (she really does), they've been through a lot together. They care about each other. But sometimes love isn't enough. And in the end, Katya leaves. She runs away to Reykjavik, to start a new life, far away from danger and secrecy.

Andrey's betrayal is more striking, though. In a friendly or romantic way, we can't say. Anyway, since the beginning Goncharov and Andrey are thick as thieves (no pun intended,,, well, maybe). They're inseparable, they act as one single soul in two different bodies. They are partners in crime, the perfect tandem in Napoli, they complement each other. There are no secrets between them... Right?

It is first implied that Katya cheated on Goncharov with his best friend. Then, some lines in the fruit scene, the poker scene and Goncharov's death scene, also make us think there was more than friendship between both men (not confirmed by the writers, but yk it was the seventies). Goncharov has literally and figuratively fallen for a lie, as Andrey, his friend, companion, lover, soulmate, is the one who ultimately kills him and sees him fall to the ground, all signs of life disappearing.

Are you death or paradise?

Now you'll never see me cry

These verses could be linked to the homoerotic details and interpretations we are familiar with at this point (if you're not, I strongly recommend you go to ao3, there's gold in there). There are many religious references throughout the film. Goncharov and Katya, as well as Andrey, grew up in a religious environment. Yes, different religions, maybe, but the same concepts: honor, family, tradition. It's easy to imagine them having a significant faith crisis when they realised their feelings (Goncharov for Andrey, and Katia for Sofia). In the song, we can see the dichotomy: Goncharov wonders why loving Andrey should be bad if it feels so good. Katya looks at the apple that Sofia is holding, thinking to herself: maybe Eve accepting and eating the apple, falling into temptation, was an unknown door to a new paradise.

There's just no time to die

THE SIMBOLISM IN THIS FILM. It always comes back to time. We are running away from an enemy we can't win. Time will always catch us. We can't fight against time.

The characters continuously have this thought. "I'm running out of time". Goncharov himself speaks about how there isn't enough time in a day to fulfill his wants, to do everything he's planning, but he keeps procrastinating the vital stuff in life. It is only when he is bleeding out that he comes to the conclusion that none of the bills, jobs and arguments were important. They weren't worth it.

So yeah, that's pretty much it!